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Saw two mainstream hollywood films this weekend - the comedy There's Something About Mary, and the very disappointing 54. Mary, which has kept it's grip on the top ten for nearly two months, outlasting heavyweights like Armageddon and Saving Private Ryan, proves once and for all that there's nothing like good old fashioned slapstick. But it has a story, too! Never mind the fact that the stalking subtext isn't really that funny, the lead character, played by Ben Stiller, actually learns something at the end. And, since this is a hollywood production we're talking about, he does get the expected reward. And hats off to Matt Dillon, too, for not taking yet another role that relies on his good looks. He took a chance, and it worked. Unfortunately Mike Myer's portrayal of Steve Rubell in 54 didn't work. He really tried though, but the script and story were so awful, he never had the chance. Also wasted were Salma Hayek and Neve Campbell. So much for the "daring" portrayal of the wild 70's, but maybe I'm just getting old and jaded. I am curious about this new "sexual odyssey" narrative that's been pushed around lately, though. Young, innocent, beautiful "all american" (that means white) boy walks into the valley of darkness, makes good with the wolves, gets all the sex he could ever want, gets beat up emotionally and physically, hits rock bottom, rebuilds himself and emerges completely unscathed at the end. Isn't that the way it always works out? Yeah, right, like Courtney Loves says, "Kill the family, save the son."
Sorry, it's been a while, but I finally finished most of what I had to say about Bulworth. I was able to catch a "sneak preview" of the upcoming Latino Film Festival at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on Wednesday, August 19th. The film festival, which will be coming to San Francisco in September, which feature both domestic and international film and video. The festival will open on the 16th at the Castro Theater, with a tribute to Rita Moreno, the only american actor to win an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony. There will also be a special showing of the film West Side Story. The sold-out sneak preview showed ten short films, some new, some old. All will be shown again during the film festival. My favorites were: Calle Chula, by Veronica Majano Chicanismo, Laura Greenlee and Luis Alvaro Now! Santiago Alvarez Sin Sosten/No Support, Rene Castillo and Antonio
Urrutia Barbacoa, Mike and Gibby Cevallos Touching, comic, but ultimately a misogynistic ode to a long-outdated vision of the family patriarch. Bring a raincoat, or at least an umbrella, to stay dry from the testosterone splash that comes at the end. Only a texan could please and anger me this much.
Steven Speilberg is the greatest director on earth. Watching Saving Private Ryan was one of the most visually shocking and emotionally draining experiences I've ever had in a movie theater. From the first half hour, the recreation of the taking of Omaha Beach, to the last half hour - a final desperate attempt to stop a squadron of tanks from crossing a bridge, we're exposed to the many horrors of war. We see snipers picking off american soldiers at a distance. We see one, final, pathetic battle between a lone american hopelessly fighting in hand to hand combat against a much larger and more powerful german infantrymen. Unlike so many of his movies over the last ten years, we're not overwhelmed by a soundtrack, we're not told when to cry, when to laugh, when to smile. Oh, he knows when to pull the old nostalgie strings. Many critics half already pointed out that the lone Iowa farmhouse of Mrs. Ryan may have been taking the drama one step too far, but overall, Spielberg relies on the acting, the story, and the drama, to move us, and that's what film should do. Steven Spielberg is the most manipulative bastard this side of Richard Nixon. With a cunning mastery of visual metaphor and symbol, he is able to convince us that maybe, just maybe, our fighting boys abroad could do no wrong. By contributing to the myth that World War II was the last "noble war" of this century, he has done more to further the cause of the political right in this country than Pat Buchanan, Jesse Helms, and Strom Thurman combined. This movie's release, shortly before the forty-third anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is too much of a coincidence to leave unmentioned. The political message of this movie - that the sacrifices these men made to "make the world safe for democracy" can not be questioned - has been used far to often as a justification for military excess and the subjugation of people of color throughout the postwar period. Increasing evidence, revealed over the last twenty years, has suggested that these brutal nuclear bombings were unnecessary and ultimately unjustifiable. Their legacy, the billions of dollars wasted on the nuclear arms race, the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency and domestic counterintelligence programs, haunt us to this day. Painfully, the dreams of generations of activists, the political movements of working class people throughout the world, and the results of experiments in government from Guatemala to Cuba to Chile, will never be realized. A movie like this can only close off debate on the political direction this country has taken since World War II. It won't help. But you should see it, really! |